A film about high school bullying in China with superb acting by the two principals: Jhou Dongyu as Nian, the smart girl tortured by the gang of pretty but vapid fellow students. And Jackson Yee as Bei, the handsome, tough kid from the other side of the tracks who tries to protect her. Standard school days melodrama; but I was totally engaged by the the off-center love story. Turns out that Jackson Yee is a famous pop star in China; but here he shows an acting talent to reckon with.

This documentary tells two parallel stories which intersect unexpectedly. Barbora is a talented Czech painter of large realistic canvases who relocated to Oslo to escape her abusive husband. After two of her paintings were stolen from an exhibit, she encountered at trial one of the captured thieves, an addict and petty criminal who couldn't recall what he had done with the paintings in his stoned stupor. Barbora, an empathetic artist, saw something interesting in the man who robbed her, and started to use him as a subject for a series of paintings and revealing conversations. That's the set-up for an interesting psychological study of two contrasting individuals that we gradually get to know, singularly and together. The film's revelations of character are so much the stuff of drama, that at times it seemed that much of the film must have been staged or scripted (and mostly in perfect English, too, since that was the language they had in common.) Yet despite the initial contrivances of the story, the unlikely friendship between the painter and the thief seemed surprisingly authentic as we got to know them as people.

This documentary presents life as people have been living it in the war and terror zones of Syria, Kurdistan, Iraq and Lebanon. Director Rosi spent three years creating spectacular visuals, mostly dawn shots rich with shadows and light (has a documentary ever won the cinematography Oscar? This one definitely should be a candidate.) It was all edited without much coherent context and with almost no political axe to grind except for a universal disparagement of the off-screen terror from the mostly defeated ISIS. But despite constantly feeling that I wish I knew more specific details about what I was watching, I was still caught up in the emotionally fraught, simultaneously beautiful and terrifying images, and the accompanying soundtrack of raw nature occasionally interrupted by the staccato of distant gunfire.

In 1962 Soviet factory workers in Novocherkassk protested and marched against higher prices; and many were massacred by the army and KGB. Information about this was ruthlessly suppressed by the state. This film tells the story of Lyudmilla (a stoic, strong performance by Julia Vysotskaya) a communist apparatchik whose rebellious daughter went missing after the event...with repercussions that rocked the mother's belief in the system. The film has the spare look of the time and place, reminiscent of previous films in the style of socialist realism. However, the politics are definitely revisionist; and I couldn't help pondering the present day relevance of the lessons of this film: for instance, what if the army had used live ammunition during the recent January 6th insurrection in D.C.? We in America would be re-living the scenes in this film even today.

This documentary shows the events that happened in four hospitals in Wuhan, China, ground zero of the Covid-19 pandemic, during the first 76 days of coping with the novel virus that took over the world from here. Through amazing up-close-and-personal videos from the inside, we get to know the care givers and patients, the triumphs and tragedies, stories that broke my heart and elevated my respect for the Chinese people. We see a huge modern city locked down by a novel virus that descended on it with little or no time to prepare. Some stories are extended throughout the film: a senile great-grandfather wandering the hallways infected, but mobile, seeking to go home unaware of the tragedies going on all around him. A young couple, sick together...but the wife in her 10th month of pregnancy finally needing a Cesarean to deliver a healthy daughter that she cannot even see until after the couple's release. A grandmother intubated, with little chance of survival, whose family heirloom bracelet is saved by the caring nurses who return it to the grieving daughter. Most of the film was rough to shoot and edit cohesively, and equally rough to watch. During the extended emergency it's understandable that much of the film was shot on the fly at great danger to the film makers. But the final film is nothing short of a remarkable recording of history happening from a human perspective.

Four elderly men and their beloved dogs hunt for prized white truffles in the forests of Piedmont in the north of Italy. The film explores the various stages of the finding, selling and devouring of the fragrant and expensive fungus. The commerce aspect with its emphasis on exploitation and money grubbing is rather dull. But the film takes flight when it follows the actual truffle hunters through the gorgeous countryside. The most interesting footage was shot with 'doggie cams' attached to the dogs as the run and root through the forest. Since the enjoyment of truffles is primarily through the aroma, the film might have benefited from "smell-o-vision." Still, this is a diverting documentary...the crusty old men are troves of humor and lore and their love for their dogs is infectious. But for me the film lacked a cohesive structure and any real content of vital interest.

In 2015 a grungy punk/metal nightclub in Bucharest, Romania went up in flames (a video from inside during the disaster opens the film, and it is some of the most terrifying footage I've ever watched). Many attendees were killed, even more treated for burns in local hospitals. But the survivors kept dying, even the ones with superficial burns. This documentary tells of one of the great journalism scoops in modern history: a sports magazine with the help of whistleblowers broke the story that the hospitals were using diluted antiseptics in their burn wards, causing dozens to die of sepsis rather than their burns. Gradually a larger scandal of corruption at the highest level brought down the health system and even the government itself. The film follows the clues from the point of view of the magazine's journalists and the newly appointed Health Minister who turns out to be an honest and effective government functionary. As scandal and muckraking documentaries go, this one is a great watch...proving that a free press is vital even in a country with a historically corrupt government like Romania.

"Time" is a double barreled title: doing endless time in Louisiana's Angola prison from the point of view of the wife and 6 kids left behind. And years worth of time stolen by a system of state mandated slavery from all eight of their lives. The B&W documentary started as a biographical short doc about a successful, religious African-American woman reformer named Sibil Fox Richardson, who was fighting to abolish unfair prison sentences and free her husband from an outlandishly unfair sentence of 60 years without parole for an aborted bank robbery. But somewhere in the editing process, the director became aware of 20 years of hand-held videos that Sibil (who served 3 1/2 years behind bars herself for abetting the crime with her husband, leaving her smart and attractive kids with their grandmother) shot over time with little editorial concern for continuity. The film was then expanded into a feature doc that is both a moving testament to love and commitment to a cause, and a cogent commentary on the dilemma of blacks in America who are caught up in a penal system that often misfires tragically.

This documentary short recounts the life experiences of New Jersey octogenarian grandmother, Nancy Kulik, through her own words and photographs as told in interviews. She was born of Neapolitan Italian immigrant parents, happily married for over 60 years, and mother of 4. Most of her life she admired a fellow Italian, the movie star, Sophia Loren, often commenting on their similar outlooks while watching videos of her movies. Eventually, her film maker daughter and Loren's film maker son brought the two women together in 2019 when Loren was being celebrated by the Motion Picture Academy in Beverly Hills. It is impossible not to be charmed by Mrs. Kulik, whose irrepressible love of life and family is infectious. It is also impossible not to admire Ms. Loren (Mrs. Ponti) who in her 80s still exemplifies the strength and beauty of womanhood.

As nature documentaries go, this is definitely A-list. It tells the story in absolutely ravishing visuals of the year-long, daily relationship between naturalist Craig Foster and the female octopus of his local South African underwater kelp forest that he befriends and...in a way personifies as a land person might a cuddly, if frisky, feral dog. Foster narrates the story, taking us into the world of this wild creature, who evidences a kind of animal intelligence and adaptability in the face of predators and as a predator herself that is amazing and unexpected. It's beautiful to watch, one of those experiences that actually changes one's view of nature for the better.

In this gentle and emotionally devastating film, Tusker (Stanley Tucci) and Sam (Colin Firth) are a committed couple traveling with their dog in their camper through the gorgeous Lake Country of rural England, revisiting their past for maybe the last time. After 20 or so years together, Tusker, an American ex-pat author, has been sinking deeper into early onset dementia; while his British concert pianist husband has increasingly become obsessed with caring for his partner no matter what that entails. What ensues is a love story that so resonated with my life and experiences that I'm struck speechless in admiration. I can only extol the subtle acting and writing and the gorgeous cinematography, and hope that the film finds an audience that can appreciate its delicate sensitivity.

Thirty years ago an African-American teenager named Latasha Harlins was shot and killed by a Korean convenience store cashier in south L.A. It was a mistake: Latasha held the $2 for her bottle of orange juice in her hand when she was killed. This documentary short tells this story through the voice-overs of her friends, along with re-created visuals and extremely arty animation. I remember this event in my city quite well...the perceived injustices of the case became a secondary cause for the riots which savaged my city in 1992. Tasha definitely deserves to be remembered...she was an extraordinarily promising 15-year old girl. And her murder has added resonance today after a year of increasingly vital BLM demonstrations. But I found myself distracted by the technique of the visuals which for me worked against the emotional impact of the message.

This documentary uses contemporary films and narration by survivors from that period to illustrate the life and times of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and the vendetta of wire taps and character assassination that the FBI used against him. The actual record and tapes are sealed until 2027; but the film makes its strong case despite that. The history of abuse of government power stretching from the '50s into the late '60s is a lesson for today's troubled times; and the film's dry, unemotional, well researched and edited retelling of it is effective.

Late 20th Century war crimes are never pretty. This film delivers the goods. Gut wrenching stuff; but a vital lesson for the world to watch.

This pastoral B&W documentary tells the story of free-range farm animals from the point of view of the animals themselves, without music or narration...just the sounds of the natural environment. It starts with a long shot of Gunda, a large sow shot through a barn's animal portal. She's grunting as she lies in a haystack. Soon a group of 10 or so newborn piglets squeal their way through the door and then wander back to suckle at their mother's ample tits. The film follows the growth of this family over the course of time with occasional interludes of chickens clucking and cows mooing. Man eventually shows up in the form of a monstrous tractor. But that's about it...the horrors of the food industry to follow are not shown. Director Kossakovsky has constructed a barnyard cinema verité in the style of a rambling Frederick Wiseman film. It's beautiful, a little tedious...but it is a revealing tedium well worth experiencing.

I could have given this 5-stars...the film touched a certain personal place of recognition in my heart and brain. But is that really being objective? Consider this a 4 3/4 star vote. Film maker/auteur Maria Sopahl and her cast have my respect and ardent thanks.

In 2019 the citizens of Hong Kong started an ongoing protest against the Chinese occupation government, with a goal of independence. This documentary short shows an up-close-and-personal series of sequences of the riots from the point of view of the protesters. At first, it was hard for an uninvolved audience to quite understand what was the cause and what was happening. However as the film continued its chronological story, the issues and sides became clear; and the film ended as a powerful indictment of tyranny and a lesson for an American audience of what might be in store for this country if the government turns oppressive and good people rise up.

Documentary film maker Kirsten Johnson turned her elderly father's memory loss and inevitable demise into a fantasia on death and adoration, with a Seventh Day Adventist spin. It is a heavily scripted documentary, mixing actual true life family videos shot over several years with fictionalized, comedic sketches of possible death scenarios. The production involved actors, stunt-men, elaborate sets and costumes, and always starred Dick Johnson: beloved father, grandfather, retired psychiatrist and jovial elder. The idea of making a very personal documentary out of something as profound as death, and presenting it as a dark comedy was a brilliant stroke. However, the execution technically was a little hit-and-miss. The changes in tone from elaborate artifice to prosaic reality were sometimes jarring.

From my point of view (as a retired film maker only slightly younger than the 86 year-old subject of the film) the film hit a little too close to the bone for comfort. When Johnson failed a short-term memory test by his neurologist, asked to recall five objects, all I could think about for the remainder of the film was whether I was able to recall "face, velvet, red, church, daisy." More than just about any film in recent memory, I was forced to face my own fear of losing it and dying...and I couldn't find it amusing enough to appreciate the film making. Dr. Johnson, however, was an amazingly game subject; and I can't help admiring the way his daughter's love for the man came through the TV screen.

In the rush to celebrate the civil rights victories in the 1970s, it is easy to overlook one that took place largely under the radar: equal rights for the disabled. Sure, I watched the ramps go up, the cuts in the curbs at every corner, the elevator accesses being built in the subways and stores. But somehow, the massive struggle for equal rights by the country's largest minority (61,000,000 disabled adults, many severely so) got lost in the noise of other more publicized causes. This documentary follows that struggle: the sit-ins, the marches, the hunger strikes etc. all done in wheelchairs and on crutches.

The story starts with a summer camp for disabled kids in the Catskills, Camp Jened. It was founded in 1950, and went under in the late 1970s. It was run by other disabled people who professed the hippie ethic. Many future activists became friends at the camp; and much of it was documented on film that has been edited and narrated by many of the survivors who are still alive. Many campers eventually moved to California, and became the nucleus of collectives which took on the government that was ignoring the laws passed by Congress.

For me, the narrative of the film was both a revelation and an unexpectedly emotional experience. Unknown heroes of the struggle became familiar, their cause eventually and happily won. The best documentaries do this. This film did it with remarkable old footage, and a concentration on the exactly right mix of disabled people to follow for the audience to relate to. Nice job!

Using historic footage and a present day actor reenactment, this documentary short puts Sigmund Freud's "Dora" (the hysterical girl in his 5 case studies) in modern day perspective. Brilliantly edited and conceived, this is a superb refutation of psychiatric mansplaining.

Texas politics as would happen if the candidates and voters were 17 year-old boys. The documentary chose to center on two personable, ethic minority and left-of-center representatives to the 2018 mock political convention organized by the American Legion. Did they beat the more politically astute good-old-boys faction in the culminating election? All I know is that I intend to vote for governor-candidate Steven Garza, the son of Mexican immigrants, for President in 2048. Yeah, I'll be 107; but he has my vote.

Feisty, embittered 90-year old Colette was part of the resistance to the Nazis as a teenage girl. Her 17 year-old brother was also in the resistance; but he was captured and died at a slave labor camp in Germany, while working 24 hr. shifts on the production of the V2 rocket. This documentary short film recounts how, after all these years, Colette decided to accompany a young historian to finally visit the camp in tribute to her older brother. It was a sad and emotionally draining trip for the old woman, as she relived on camera the horrors of the crematorium, the underground factory, the naked ground where the prisoners slept. The beautiful cinematography and the lush greenery of the present-day site provide a solemn counterpoint to Colette's message.

Yes, speed cubing (the solving, using one or both hands, of various sizes of Rubik's cubes while being timed by a clock measuring in hundredths of a second) is a competition sport, mostly among young men who practice their passion incessantly. There are even world championships, famous record holders, and ardent fans. This involving documentary short follows two of the competitors, both at some time world record holders. Max is an Asian-American, diagnosed as autistic, but nevertheless a multiple champion and record holder at the sport. Feliks is an Australian, established as a world champion early in the sport's history...a boy that Max respected and looked up to until he surpassed his idol. As depicted in this film, their friendship and rivalry is fascinating to watch and emotionally affecting.

Brendon is an artistic teenager who identifies as trans non-binary, pronoun neutral. Their family is mostly supportive (mother is J-Lo's sister!). But Brendon still is adjusting to trans life, and admitted to attempting suicide at one point, only to be rescued by their friends. This documentary short film tells Brendon's story with deeply felt interviews from themself and their family members. The film has a hopeful coda where the director interviews Brendon as a college student whose voice has deepened from testosterone therapy. This is one of the most positive and educational examples we've had on film of personal growth and the particularly unique situation of the "t" side of LGBT.

South Sudan is a young African country, war-torn and impoverished. One out of every eight mothers currently die in childbirth due to poor care and undernourishment. This heartening and moving documentary short film recounts the efforts of an elderly Ugandan woman named Grace, trained as a nurse, who took up the burden of forming a school for midwives in neighboring South Sudan. Her first school had to be abandoned in 2017 when her students' lives were threatened by the approaching war and accompanying rape and pillaging. But despite the hardships, she moved her students to the capital, and continues to train them today, even at the cost of leaving her own family in a far away refugee camp.

The film is beautifully produced, superbly photographed and edited, with occasional poetic narration by actress Sienna Miller. But this is Grace's story...a Mother Teresa type of hero...and the film nicely captures her essence.

Maya-Camille Broussard is a partially deaf young woman living in Chicago. Despite her handicap, she formed a successful pie bakery in tribute to her pie loving father. As a sideline, she also teaches young African American youths, many of whom have never even visited a supermarket, to make pies. This documentary short film follows Ms. Broussard, entrepreneur, culinary artist, and teacher through her daily tasks; and allows her to tell her story in her own words. She is an attractive and worthy subject; and the film was competently shot. But the editing and production values lacked energy; and the film didn't really engage me.

In this family sitcom short film, Scottie (Charlie Tacker) is a teenage heartthrob actor who is returning to his mid-west home with an inflated sense of stardom after making a big Hollywood film. He is even accompanied by a film crew documenting his triumphant return to his roots. But his mother and two sisters are determined to bring Scottie back to earth. This is an enjoyable, short moral tale with a fine ensemble of actors and a script that is both funny and trenchant.

A gold-rush era prospector finds a huge gold nugget and encounters the angel of death. This was a well acted, concise short film, with authentic costumes and convincing special effects. But basically this was a one-joke moral fable that was more trivial than profound.

In this allegorical, sci-fi short film, Jarrett is an introspective youth who finds himself in an unfamiliar house. He encounters a blue-skinned alien boy who encourages him to exit the house into a strange lunar like landscape with many doors standing like lonely sentinels in the distance. The allegory resolved well and the sci-fi touches and especially the make-up were at a professional level. But the pacing of the film was slow, the acting just okay; and by the end the film failed to achieve the emotional catharsis that it needed to deliver.

This documentary short, made up entirely from old film clips and photographs, explores the checkered career of Harlon Carter, who was the lobbyist and executive of the National Rifle Association primarily responsible for that organizations mid-20th Century transformation from a support and educational group for gun hobbyists into a political force for unfettered 2nd Amendment rights. A Texan, Carter started as a border guard, and then rose to command the entire border patrol as it executed the 1950s "Operation Wetback," a forerunner of Trump's border wall policy. In the 1960s he rose to the presidency of the NRA. But in the 1980s it came out that as a 17 year-old he had shot to death a 15-year old Latino boy, and he had served 2 years in prison before his conviction was overturned. Nevertheless his steadfast resistance to any sort of gun control became the general policy of the NRA during his leadership. The film is dedicated to the memory of Romón Casiano, the boy he murdered. And despite the degraded B&W quality of most of the film clips, the message of Carter's pervasive racism and far right activism came through loud and clear.

This doc short recounts the re-opening of Disney World in Summer, 2020, emphasizing that attendees' safety from covid-19 has become the primary goal of the management of the magic kingdom. For 12 minutes the viewer is taken through a tour of the major attractions, gloriously photographed, but with crowds far sparser than usual. The film probably is an extended ad for Disney World; but it is so relentlessly positive and fun-filled that it actually plays like a polished travelogue.

This documentary short follows Jean, an elderly New Zealand native woman. She's a weaver, who constructs intricate and beautiful Korowais, traditional Maori cloaks made from feathers laboriously plucked from native Weka birds. The birds are a protected species where she lives; but they are considered a pest on Chatham Island, a New Zealand territory several hundred miles east of the South Island mainland. Jean is on her third round of chemo; but she is determined to finish cloaks for her family before she dies. Short of feathers, she defies her doctors and travels to Chatham where an old man named Johnny Rotten (can't make this up) and his dog hunted the birds and gifted her with enough feathers to take back home. She then spent 20 months intricately weaving the feathers into cloaks. Jean is a real character, plucky herself. And the film is well made, with a particularly effective original score that has nativist roots. However, one can't help but feel for the myriad birds sacrificed for the sake of art, Maori culture, and women's vanity. OK, that was a cheap shot; but it's basically what I got out of the film.

Sometimes a documentary short hits the sweet spot of topical relevance and excellent film making. That is the triumph of this superb and important documentary short. The film explores the history of the misuse of misdemeanor statutes...minor infractions such as jaywalking, vagrancy, petty theft etc...by the police and courts to systematically enslave mostly impoverished people of color in jails, prisons and chain gangs. The practice started in the Reconstruction era, as a way for the dominant white culture in the South to reassert its economic control lost after the Civil War, and continues to this day in entrapping thirteen million Americans a year in a legal quagmire that often leads to death (forcefully brought to the fore by the Black Lives Matter protests of today.)

Using experts in law and history and a series of interviews with present day victims of the system's failures, along with well constructed graphics, montages and excellent editing, the film makes an iron-clad case of continuing, and even escalating injustices. This is an incredibly timely documentary; and with adequate distribution this film could actually make a difference in today's America, leading to systemic reforms such as the recent no-bail statute that almost was passed by referendum in California.

Kira Dane is half-Japanese, half-American. At the start of this documentary short film she explains that "Mizuko" is the traditional Japanese way of explaining life as a flowing river: water pouring in from the infinite at the start and equally flowing out into the infinite at the end. This philosophy is partially expressed in Japan by the Buddhist practice of memorializing and grieving for dead or aborted water children with little statues that are a metaphor for their essence returning to the sea. The film illustrates its premise with gorgeous watercolor animations and scenes of Buddhist rituals in Japan. But it is clear that by returning to her roots, Ms. Dane is using her culture as a way to deal with the consequences of herself having aborted her own water child. I think I learned from this 15 minute film a lot about what often mystifies me about Japanese culture; but for me the film was also somewhat too disturbingly personal.

This Polish documentary short film has the ironic title in English: "My Country, So Beautiful." The film illustrates without explanatory material a series of street protests that pit Christian Nationalists against a coalition of anti-fascists, students and activists. The battle cry of the fascist mobs is mainly anti-Muslim and that Europe is only for White people. But there are elements of antisemitism and homophobia as they label their enemies Communists. The police are caught in the middle as violence escalates in these demonstrations throughout Poland. The film shows discourse from both sides: thugs with megaphones shouting hatred filled imprecations, matched with shots of classrooms where young students are arguing rationally, mostly on the side of the anti-fascists.

It is impossible for an American not to compare these Polish conflicts with marches in the U.S. like Charlottesville. However, the episodes of anarchy and confrontation in this film are even more intense. The film makers managed to capture up-close video of dangerously invasive fighting between the antagonists with the policemen in the middle. I felt a visceral repugnance watching the violent and hateful footage in this film; but even more an admiration for the dedication of the anti-fascist opposition...even though at times it was hard to tell the two sides apart except for the banners and costumes and chants. I honestly don't know how closely this film represents the fracture of Polish society; but it certainly isn't pretty to watch.

This six-minute short doc follows a woman named Marie going through a home-birth ordeal for the 63 hours of labor. By necessity it is made up of short scenes strung together as the process continues. It is painful to watch; but not nearly as exhausting as the experience undoubtedly was for Marie herself.

Lamya Essemlali is an eco-activist, a spokesperson for the French chapter of the Sea Shepherd Society, a group dedicated to protecting and sustaining life in the oceans ("If the Ocean dies, We die".) This documentary short follows her on her quest to protect sea turtles from meat poachers on an island near Mozambique. But even more impactful is her trip to the Faroe islands in the North Atlantic where the local fishermen perform a traditional (and protected by law) yearly ritual round up and slaughter of hundreds of whales called "the Grind." These horrifying scene of a blood soaked cove and mass burial of whale carcasses reminds one of the Oscar winning doc, "The Cove," about a similar mass killing of dolphins in Japan.

Eco-warrior films have become a staple of documentaries for good reason. And Ms. Essemlali, a Moroccan raised in a Parisian slum, a French TV personality, vegitarian, and mother of an adorable toddler daughter who herself is a mini-activist, makes an ideal subject for such a film.

Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen is causing famine conditions in that country, leading to untold numbers of children starving to death. This important documentary short film takes the viewer up close and personal to two hospitals where emaciated and dying young children are being treated for malnourishment, rickets, and other maladies. We're introduced to the suffering of the children through the eyes of two women, a doctor and a nurse. A few years ago the world was shocked by photographs of the starving children in famine plagued Darfur. The current crisis in Yemen is of that order and even moreso. The film makers apparently had no difficulty finding pitiable scenes of beautiful children reduced to living skeletons. Their efforts to expose these scenes from this almost forgotten war succeed in alerting the world to this ongoing catastrophe.

Two young film makers, MD and Mimi, met at a festival in Chicago in early 2020. He's from just outside of Dublin, Ireland...she's American. After MD returned to Ireland they messaged each other for weeks; and in March, Mimi, recently having experienced a difficult breakup with an ex-, traveled to Ireland on a whim. Then the return flights were cancelled and the two almost-strangers (and his adorable dog) were forced to live together. And make copious video diaries, each alone in the car. And stroll together on the beach. And actually get to know each other despite expectations. Eventually, Mimi decided to fly back to Chicago...and their future together remains unknown.

This intense, romantic and frankly truthful 11 minute documentary short film tells a fresh kind of relationship story that is totally in sync with this era. It wouldn't have occurred if the pandemic hadn't happened. MD in the film (Michael-David McKernan) ultimately edited the documentary from materials that he and Mimi created. He's listed as the director; but this film is a triumph of the editing craft, using split screen video and audio (illustrated with animations) to propel a narrative of a developing and evanescent love affair. In lesser hands it could have come off as self-indulgent; but McKernan gives it just the right amount of objectivity and timeliness. Nice job!

For the past 42 years I have been participating in the Academy's international film Oscar selection process. The Academy discourages members of this committee from reviewing or commenting on films watched at these screenings. This special year, the films are only being streamed to the membership rather than being shown on the big screen. Still, I am abiding by the Academy's regulation and avoiding reviews.

However, in the case of this film I am breaking my rule since it is also considered a documentary...and the academy does not rule against my reviewing films within my own branch (documentaries.) In this clever and resonant (for me at age 79) film, 83-year old Sergio has been hired by a "detective" working for a client to insert an elderly mole into the client's mother's nursing home to determine if the staff has been mistreating her mother. Despite this fictional basis, the film is played for maximum realism. The "San Francisco" assisted living facility in Santiago, Chile, is a real one, and the patients (mostly elderly women and a smattering of men) are apparently totally authentic. Sergio, a kind and reasonably personable elderly gentleman, is treated as pure gold by many of the women in the facility. There is a comic element as Sergio, not the most technically abled of his age group, uses hidden cameras (in a pen and in a pair of glasses) to spy inside the facility.

All in all, this is a delightful film, edited as a narrative so that it could easily be considered an entertainment as well as a document about those aging people who are living in these facilities. Maybe my reaction to the film was colored by my identification with the somewhat hapless Sergio (we're of a similar age), and also my recollection of dealing with my own mother in a facility similar to the one in the film. Still, this film informed and entertained its audience in a novel way that is to be admired.

Ed Larson is an American standup comedian whose mother (his biggest fan) died in her sixties of complications from diabetes at her home in New Jersey. In a monologue that opens this documentary short film, Larson tells of his conviction that his mother was badly served by Medicare and the institutions that impoverished her. So Larson, accompanied by an invisible camera crew, took off across the U.S. to discover and confront these issues...including interviewing his father who had remarried and lives in Reno. The film is is extremely well produced, with excellent cinematography and editing. Larson himself and the subjects of his investigation that he confronts on his travels are all interesting enough. And a couple of Larson's comedian friends provide amusing commentary on Larson's quest in conversations. Yet, even though the viewer gets to know and sympathize with Larson's mother, the film ultimately fails its mission to be universal enough with its message to justify its running time.

In response to the disastrous political situation in Maduro's hyper-inflationary Venezuela, millions of refugees have crossed over the Colombian border at the town of Cúcuta...some just to shop and get needed medicines and return, others to permanently re-locate. After a humanitarian concert attended by thousands held in the area in early 2019, the Venezuelan government halted the flow of aid back into the country over the legal bridge; and the refugees took to hiking by trail. This documentary short was made by an ex-pat film maker who returned to her home town to record the troubles of the times for the town of Cúcuta and Colombia...primarily through interviews at the border with actual Venezuelans as they continue to cope with their dire personal situations. The film is nicely shot and edited, with the director narrating in English and the interviews in subtitled Spanish. The entire world is filled with the plight of various groups of refugees; but this situation at the Venezuela-Colombia border is less well known and worthy of such an informative and sympathetic documentary.

After a long and ultimately hopeless battle with cancer, Bambi has decided to go into home hospice. Her only wish is that she can live to see her first grandchild born. Rick is a good guy, caretaker for his own toddler grand-daughter. Recently, he had moved to Oakland and married Bambi, taking on the duty of being her full time caretaker with a little help from occasional hospice nursing. That is the set-up for a documentary short film that shows by example the plight of untold number of family caretakers for the sick and dying. The film was shot over the course of Bambi's decline and (no spoiler) ultimate demise; and skillfully edited to include Rick's increasingly heavy burden as caretaker along with Bambi's pain and suffering. This is emotionally heavy material. Still, the film makers manage to be unobtrusive, and succeed at being objective about their aim to demonstrate the plight of countless of other cases of home caretakers who undertake the overwhelming, and often unrecompensed, duty of care.

This documentary short film recounts the ecologic destruction of a small coastal area of southwest India, a fishing and rice growing region around the town of Alappad, in Kerala. The local shores are known for a mineral rich black sand, which is being ruthlessly mined, with all the profits going to the refining companies elsewhere. The extraction of the sands is allowig the ocean to over-run the area, causing untold economic suffering of the populace. The film was made for a good cause; but the non-stop narration (in English) drones on, and the visuals seem sparse and repetitive. However, there are some inventive animated sequences for educational purposes which are skillfully done. Eco-disaster docs are a staple of the media. Too bad that this one is so didactic that it loses its emotional momentum.